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Some of the most creative people I know are also some of the most miserable people I know... I can be cackling like a maniac one day, and the next I'm walking around in a funk. I think that's characteristic of a lot of people.
-Les Claypool |
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Photo by Jay Blakesberg
Funkin' With The System
Les Claypool by Dave Vann |
Claypool is usually put in the same line as rock deities like Chris Squire (Yes) and Geddy Lee (Rush), but there's a pronounced funky side to his playing, especially on the new album, that recalls one of his idols, Larry Graham (Sly & The Family Stone, Graham Central Station). He says, "That's the direction I came from. It's a bit more like a record I did called Highball With The Devil. To me, it's more like that record than say Purple Onion, which is more of a tactile experience, where Highball With The Devil and this record have a groove, a tribal element that's fundamental."
The Frog Brigade regularly covered Graham Central's peace-flashin' anthem "Hair." It's the kind of protest music that sneaks up on you, understood only after you've sweated out some impurities on the dance floor. While hesitant to make proclamations, there's a subtle political subtext to his recent work, though even he doesn't always realize it's in there until after the fact.
"I think you're continually reflecting what's going on around you," offers Claypool. "Like the Bucket of Bernie Brains record, I was writing all those lyrics as we were getting ready to go into Iraq. I see that now. '48 Hours To Go' was about Bush giving Saddam 48-hours to get out. That record is chock full of things like that because it was such an intense part of everyday life at that time. It was every topic of every conversation at the coffee shop or hanging out with your friends."
Fuzzy Navel-Gazing
Lapland "Lapdog" Miclovich (Claypool)
Electric Apricot |
Electric Apricot is a band and a movie. Both come with a forked tongue pressing the inside of their cheek. An effective parody mocks with affection, mixing in sincerity with the bitter aftertaste of its observations. Electric Apricot: The Quest For Festeroo (here's the hilarious trailer...) was made with producer Jason McHugh - whose pedigree includes the live-action Trey Parker howlers Orgazmo and Cannibal! The Musical - and takes sure aim at the Birkenstock-wearing, militant vegan jamband world. The tagline says volumes in just a few words: "The answer is blowing in the wind. Can you smell it?"
Joined by a gaggle of Bay Area musician pals, Claypool plays super mutton-chopped drummer Lapland "Lapdog" Miclovich. The rest of the fictitious band consists of Aiwas (bass), Herschel Brilstein (keyboards), and guitarist Steve "Gordo" Gordon, played with herbally damaged grace by M.I.R.V's Brian Kehoet. While this is the first feature film written & directed by Claypool, he's been a cinephile his whole life. He recalls, "I did direct The Dog That Ate Detroit, which was made when I was about 12 years old on Super 8. It starred Barney Bernard, the family's St. Bernard. There is that. I've directed a bunch of videos but never a feature film. It was quite the undertaking."
Electric Apricot :: HSMF 2005 by Dave Vann |
The band has done limited touring to help build the mythology behind Apricot, including a memorable 2005 High Sierra appearance that had many folks digging the music – (a pleasing brand of Phish-Jefferson Airplane spin rock) – in a pure way, utterly unaware of the postmodern concept behind the band.
"As I've been doing interviews and film festival Q & A's, there's always the Spinal Tap thing. 'So, what about Spinal Tap?' I have a stock line for that: 'How many films have there been about baseball?' Spinal Tap was 20 years ago," comments Claypool. "I watched Spinal Tap halfway through the filming just to make sure we weren't stepping on any toes, and Spinal Tap is way more overt than our thing. Like the performance at High Sierra, I was getting that as we were doing this, that people had no idea who I was or anything, people just groovin' on it at face value. Well, at film festivals there were people watching who thought this was a real documentary about a real band."
The leap behind the lens is a natural one for Claypool, who says, "Images are a big thing for me because I think in pictures. When I'm writing music, it's pictures that I'm seeing. Everybody has their different thing."
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